Umbrella signals incoming rain

Ubicomp
Just as ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) and total surveillance will probably be inseparable, so it seems that embedded devices, wherever we find them and whatever their purposes, will do much of our thinking for us.

The Ambient Umbrella, for example, is a $125 net-connected contraption with a handle that glows when it is going to rain. The umbrella, standing by your door like Sherlock Holmes's landlady, can always be there to remind you to take proper care of yourself.

The umbrella, which gets its information from Accuweather, succeeds at proving one point: Not all of the information you need from the net requires a keyboard or a web browser or even a standard display.

It also suggests that a world full of tiny chips, sensors, and displays, all with low-power, always-on Internet connections, may have a stupefying effect on the human brain. I prefer to trust my own eyes, and NECN's Matt Noyes, to tell me if rain is coming.

Cambridge-based Ambient Devices (ambientdevices.com) makes more practical use of its data channels through its color-changing Orbs and displays that show you which way the stock market is headed.

And the elegant, wood-trimmed Liveboard (myliveboard.com), from Attleboro-based Vroop, did a fine job helping me keep track of the Mets. (A Mac version of the Liveboard is now available.)

Skype Phones

A goofy all-in-one mouse phone worthy of Maxwell Smart

If you are sensitive to feature overload, stay away from the VocalValet, from Framingham-based Personica Intelligence. Not since Maxwell Smart's shoe phone has anyone tried to cram more functions into a single contraption.

The VocalValet (myvocalvalet.com) is a mouse, a Skype flip phone, a hands-free speakerphone, and an alarm clock.

You can voice-dial any of your Skype contacts with the VocalValet.

It takes voice commands. It will also read your horoscope to you.

The VocalValet will not chop your carrots, however, at least not this version of the device, nor is it Mac compatible.

The mouse (about $80) comes with a pair of headphones and a mouse pad, so it seems fairly priced, at least.

Ipod Accessories

A smart wristwatch and a very, very, dumb speaker for your bicycle

I've never had trouble controlling my iPod while hiking in the Blue Hills. That's because I'm not uptight about breaking my stride a bit to change the volume or select a track to power me up a rocky slide on the Skyline Trail.

But if you are a runner or cyclist, you are probably looking for anything that will streamline your act. Two new products, one clever and one exceedingly dumb, are designed to make it easier to control your music player during a workout.

The Timex Ironman iControl (about $125) is a featherweight wristwatch with wireless iPod controls that also start and stop the watch's chronograph and countdown timer. The watch has a handy backlight button if your excursions take you out after nightfall. The iControl does not display music tracks, however. The iControl communicates with the iPod via a dongle you attach to the music player. It also works with the iPhone.

SDI, with its iH85B "bike to beach," has taken a different approach to taking your music on the trail: adding more than a pound of weight to your bike and displacing one of the water bottles you might keep on your frame.

The single speaker iH85B (about $100) blasts music up at your face while you are bent over the handlebars. (You mount the iPod inside the tube-shaped gadget.) It also comes with a wireless controller you can stick on your handlebars, right next to your revolving bee bell. SDI, which makes products under the iHome brand, should stick to iPod systems for the home, not the outdoors.

Innovative last week

So, just who among us is wireless-only?

Today, three out of 20 US households have a wireless phone only, according to Innovation Zen. That number continues to increase, and wireless-only has started to define segments of the population. Adults who rent are much more likely than those who own a house to use a wireless phone exclusively. Half of all wireless-only adults are 30 years old or younger. And adults living in poverty (22.4 percent) were much more likely than those with higher incomes to be wireless-only.